Brigadeiro Hospital has reduced occupancy and exam postponed – 12/01/2023 – Balance and Health

Day laborer Clenair da Silva, 54, arrived early at the Brigadeiro Municipal Hospital, in Jardins (west of the capital), to undergo an exam scheduled for this Friday (1st), but was not attended to.

Through the closed gate, she was informed that the tomography — requested on October 26 — would be rescheduled and the new date would be informed by email. “But I asked on Monday if it was confirmed and they didn’t say anything”, she replied to no avail.

According to employees who asked not to be identified, the place is not accepting new patients and has until the 6th of this month to transfer those who are hospitalized.

São Paulo City Hall denies this and says that the service is in operation. “This Friday, there are three patients hospitalized in beds in the Intensive Care Unit and 27 in the ward”, informs the Municipal Health Department in a note.

When it opened in February 2021, the hospital had 110 beds, 10 of which were ICU beds. At the end of 2022, the contract with SPDM (Associação Paulista para o Desenvolvimento da Medicina), a social organization that manages the site, indicated 75 infirmary beds and 10 ICU beds, with a monthly cost of R$4,267,868.19.

The imposition of a total hospital closure by Health Surveillance was published last Monday (27) in the Official Gazette, following a request from the Public Ministry of São Paulo.

According to the MPSP, the decision was taken after an inspection carried out this month found the same irregularities highlighted during a visit carried out in January. At the time, surveillance determined the partial closure of the establishment, as published in the February 7 edition of the DOE.

Among the problems, the prosecutor cites the lack of operating license and inspection report from the Fire Department, as well as inaccuracies in sectors such as the warehouse, ICU and hospitalization units.

Lack of air conditioning was noted; direct sunlight on hospitalized patients; risk of diagnostic failure due to problems in the analysis laboratory; medicines stored in the hallway; lack of food distribution on the hospitalization floors; single bathroom for patients and staff with inadequate dimensions; insufficient number of emergency carts and lung ventilators, among others.

In the same month, the Municipal Health Department determined the transfer of R$ 375,125.15 to SPDM to prepare the reform project.

According to the schedule of the contractual amendment, the deadline for creating the project would be six months and the document should provide, among others, the preparation of the basic architectural project for the Health Surveillance and for the authorization of the Fire Department, review of the electrical and an air conditioning plan.

In May, the Municipal Health Department determined a new transfer of R$ 2,622,659.37 to SPDM for works at the hospital, with an execution period of one year. This Friday, there was no sign or movement at the site indicating that renovations were being carried out.

“The Surveillance’s determination is for patients to be removed and SMS to send weekly reports of the removal”, says the MPSP.

The secretariat, in turn, states that “all questions raised by the Health Surveillance Center and Public Ministry of the State of São Paulo have been answered and are under technical analysis”. She also says that she awaits negotiations with municipal and state surveillance for the next definitions.

“At the moment, transfers of patients who are on site only occur in cases where there is a clinical need, through the municipal regulation center”, adds the folder.

Regarding the works, the note informs that of the four floors of the hospital, the first two have received all the adaptations and the 3rd and 4th are undergoing adjustments and should be delivered in six months.

The positioning also highlights that the location recorded 3,300 discharges in the last three years. Before that, the building was used as a center for regulating the city’s health services.

“The unit’s tomography, which is an important diagnostic equipment, performs around 1,000 exams per month”, highlights the municipal management. In the case of Clenair, the CT scan did not take place today and it will be necessary to continue waiting to discover the cause of migraines and dizziness.